HIGHWAY BAN IN JAMMU & KASHMIR, COMPARISON WITH ISRAEL. Abhishek Tripathi LAW CRITIQUE Mon, Apr 08, 2019, at ,06:07 PM This Sunday was the first day of two day highway ban every week in Jammu and Kashmir. Heavy security has been deployed on Baramulla to Udhampur to inforce the ban. The ban is imposed to open road exclusively for the convoys of military forces on every Sunday and Wednesday. The ban is imposed to prevent any attack or suicide bombing as happened on 14th February which killed 40 CRPF soldiers. Duty magistrates have been deployed along the highway to issue special travel passes for emergency services, officials said. Since early morning on Sunday hundreds of vehicle are stranded on intersections and people are seen pleading with the police and security forces to allow them to move on. But no civilian vehicle is allowed to use the highway. In Anantnag District a Groom is permitted by the District magistrate to use the highway for wedding party along with 12 other persons and 4 vehicles. The order to enforce the ban on highway travel by the state administration has been criticised by political parties and civil society groups. They say banning civilian traffic over security concerns has never happened in the past and it was a drastic step, instead of finding alternatives. Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Driving to Uri I’m getting to see first-hand the extent of disruption & inconvenience that is being caused to people because of the mindless highway closure order that is in place today.” Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti called on people in the state to defy the ban. "My appeal to people is not to accept this ban. Defy it and travel wherever you want to go. We will challenge this ban in the court as well," she said. “If the Government of India thinks that by doing such things they can suppress the people of the state, they are wrong. We are defying this order and also filing a petition in court tomorrow," Mehbooba Mufti said in Panthachowk on the outskirts of Srinagar. The People's Democratic Party's chief also tweeted videos of her as well as her party leaders protesting against state Governor Satya Pal Malik and his administration over the ban. "This is Kashmir, not Palestine. We won’t allow you to turn our beloved land into an open air prison," she said. “Due to the frequent closure of this highway on account of landslides and bad weather, we already have a one-way traffic system for commercial vehicles. That, essentially, gives us only three days in a week to export our locally-manufactured goods. After this order, we effectively get two days,” Sheikh Ashiq, the president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry – the oldest and most prominent traders’ association in the region.